Sleepers (film)

"Sleepers" redirects here. For other uses, see Sleeper (disambiguation).

Sleepers
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Barry Levinson
Produced by	Barry Levinson Steve Golin
Screenplay by	Barry Levinson
Based on	Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra
Starring	Kevin Bacon Robert De Niro Vittorio Gassman Dustin Hoffman Jason Patric Brad Pitt Brad Renfro Minnie Driver
Music by	John Williams
Cinematography	Michael Ballhaus
Editing by	Stu Linder
Studio	Polygram Filmed Entertainment Propaganda Films Baltimore Pictures
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	October 18, 1996 (1996-10-18)
Running time	147 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$44 million
Box office	$165,615,285

Sleepers is a 1996 legal drama film written, produced, and directed by Barry Levinson, and based on Lorenzo Carcaterra's 1995 novel of the same name.

Plot

Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra, Thomas "Tommy" Marcano, Michael Sullivan, and John Reilly are four childhood friends who grew up in Hell's Kitchen, New York City in the mid-1960s. During this time, the local priest, Father Bobby Carillo, plays a very important part in their lives and keeps an eye on them. However, early on they start running small errands for a local gangster, King Benny.

On a summer day in 1967, their lives take a sharp turn when they almost kill a man after pulling a prank on a hot dog vendor. As punishment, they are all sentenced to serve time at the Wilkinson Home for Boys in Upstate New York. There, the boys are systematically beaten, abused, and raped by guards Sean Nokes, Henry Addison, Adam Styler, and Ralph Ferguson. These traumatic events change the boys and their friendship forever.

Fourteen years later, John and Tommy, now gangsters, find Sean Nokes in a Hell's Kitchen pub. After reintroducing themselves to Nokes, they both shoot him dead in front of several witnesses. Mike, now an assistant District Attorney, arranges to be assigned to the case, secretly intending to botch the prosecution to use it as a means of getting revenge. Moreover, he and Shakes begin forging a plan to get their revenge on all the guards who abused them. Together with many of their lifelong friends, especially Carol, a social worker, and King Benny, they manage to carry out their revenge using information on all the Wilkinson guards compiled by Mike previously. They hire Danny Snyder, a washed-up, alcoholic lawyer, to defend John and Tommy to make it seem as if the case is hopeless, allowing them to carry out their plan without being watched.

However, to clinch the case they need a key witness who can give John and Tommy an alibi. Shakes has a long talk with Father Bobby, and tells him about the abuse they suffered at Wilkinson. After a few days of soul-searching, Father Bobby agrees to lie on the stand about where John and Tommy were on the night of the shooting; the priest swears under oath that they were with him at Madison Square Garden at a New York Knicks basketball game. As a result, they are acquitted, and another one of the guards, Ralph Ferguson, exposes himself and Nokes as abusers when called as a character witness in court. The remaining guards are also punished for their crimes: one, Henry Addison, is killed by the drug gang run by the older brother of Rizzo, a boy killed years before in the Wilkinson Home; the other, Adam Styler, a corrupt policeman accused of extorting and killing a drug dealer, is exposed and arrested. After the case is over, Mike quits his job as an attorney and moves to the English countryside where he becomes a carpenter; John drinks himself to death and Tommy is eventually murdered, both within a few years of the acquittal.

Cast

Role	Actor
Lorenzo "Shakes" Carcaterra	Joe Perrino	Jason Patric
Michael Sullivan	Brad Renfro	Brad Pitt
Thomas "Tommy" Marcano	Jonathan Tucker	Billy Crudup
John Reilly	Geoffrey Wigdor	Ron Eldard
Carol Martinez	Monica Polito	Minnie Driver
Father Bobby Carillo	Robert De Niro
Sean Nokes	Kevin Bacon
Henry Addison	Jeffrey Donovan
Adam Styler	Lennie Loftin
Ralph Ferguson	Terry Kinney
King Benny	Vittorio Gassman
Danny Snyder	Dustin Hoffman
Nick Davenport	Daniel Mastrogiorgio

Reception

The film received mixed to positive reviews and Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 73% and Metacritic giving it a weighted score of 49.

Authenticity

The version of the film shown on television and DVD, although uncut, contains disclaimers before the end credits stating that the New York youth correctional authorities and the Manhattan District Attorney's office deny that the events in the film took place. A final title card states that Carcaterra stands by his story.

External links

• Sleepers at the Internet Movie Database
• Sleepers at AllRovi
• Sleepers at Box Office Mojo
• Sleepers at Rotten Tomatoes
• Sleepers at Metacritic
• Synopsis at director Barry Levinson's website